


Double Edged Blades

by The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi



Series: The Black Sisters Series [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 3 + 1 format, Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, More angst, black sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-28 04:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30134193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi/pseuds/The_Dark_Enchantress_Ruhi
Summary: Three differences between Andy and Bella, and one similarity.
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange & Narcissa Black Malfoy & Andromeda Black Tonks
Series: The Black Sisters Series [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1628116





	Double Edged Blades

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Season Eight  
> Round : Round 6—As Different As…  
> Team : Puddlemere United  
> Position : Captain  
> Word Count : 1016  
> Warnings : implied torture by crucio  
> Task : Night and Day—Nyx is the goddess of the Night. She is associated with death, doom, and darkness. Her sister is Hemera, the goddess of Day, who is associated with light, rebirth, and hope. Day is borne by the night. Even in the face of doom there is always hope. They who die are reborn. Such are circles of life.
> 
> A/N: A(nother) fic about Bella and Andy.

* * *

**_“Nyx and Hemera draw near and greet one another as they pass the great threshold of bronze: and while the one is about to go down into the house, the other comes out at the door." – Hesiod_ **

* * *

**I.**

Andy learns to unlearn what she has been taught all her life. Bella doesn't. 

Maybe it's because Andy never really did believe in the system of blood purity—never really thought herself to be superior than anyone else. And here, at Hogwarts, it becomes clearer with every passing day. They are just like each other, the purebloods, and the ‘mudbloods’. 

Still, her eleven year old self tries her hardest to cling to the beliefs that have been hammered into her head, for Bella’s sake more than her own, because Bella did— _ does— _ believe in them, truly believe in them. Worship them, even. She revels in the hurt and humiliation she causes to anyone below them. Muggleborns, halfbloods, even the lesser purebloods. But then Bella has always been that way, always thought them to be superior. Andy doesn't really think her twin could change her way of thinking. Her mind and her beliefs are, after all, one of the few constants of her life. She won’t throw them away just like that.

It gets harder and harder trying to hide her disenchantment, however especially once she discards the heavily biased sight she is supposed to see everyone with. Now she can see how much there is to learn. Now she can feel an actual sense of happiness. Now she has friends who are not just her sisters. Now she can see how normal lives are lived, even though their normal is far from her own.

_ “Maybe they’re actually better than us,”  _ she thinks idly as she tries and fails to make her feather float, watching the muggleborn Hufflepuff—Edward—in front of her do it easily.

* * *

**II.**

Andy learns to love. Bella doesn't.

It is easy to love Edward. Much easier than Andy had ever thought loving someone could be. Because for Andy, any love has always been protecting someone from the world, shielding them from the cruelty around them. Bearing their pain. 

She hadn't ever truly realized that it could also be just sitting together in companionable silence, sneaking glances at each other and then looking away blushing when they get caught. Looking for reasons to make the other smile. Feeling calm, content, happy, and secure. Basking in the pure simplicity of a kiss. Being in love is beautiful. 

It isn't in a grand, dramatic moment that Andy decides that she will fight for her love. It is simple—just as simple as Ted makes everything. She looks up from her book and at Ted’s brown face, peppered with freckles, forehead bearing a frown as he tries to concentrate on a new spell, and she knows she would give up her life for this man. She would give up everything.

Bella refuses to fall in love. Love can only break. Love can only destroy. Love can only take you away from the people who care for you the most. The same way it took away Druella from her family. The same way it took away Cygnus from his family. The same way it is now taking Andy away from them, whether she admits it or not. She’s losing her sister, to a  _ Mudblood,  _ at that. If— _ when _ —Andy leaves, it'll only be Cissy and her left. But unlike Andy, Bella does not forget her promises.

* * *

  
  


**III.**

Andy lets go. Bella doesn't.

Bella had always known this day would come. One day Andy would decide to leave her sisters alone in a life full of wolves so that she could escape. And now she has. The emptiness of her twin’s bedroom greets her like a rabid, famished wolf would greet a lamb. Attacking. Suffocating. Hurting. 

The long length of rope hanging from the window sill mocks Bella as she approaches it, dangling into their side garden, just out of sight. The room is still a huge mess, but a different sort of mess. A mess that has been made to look for things, instead of putting them away. Choosing and packing the fragments of her life that she wants to hold on to, leaving behind everything else. 

Bella had once thought Andy’s bedroom would alway be a safe place for them, a happy part of her memory. A memory that has now been tainted. She picks up a frame lying face down on Andy's bed, and discovers a picture of the three of them from when they were younger. She clenches her fists. She had never though her sisters would be a memory that Andy would ever leave behind. 

It should've been satisfying, watching Cygnus burn Andy’s name out of the family tapestry, but all Bella feels is hollow. 

_ “I’ll never leave you,”  _ Bella promises Narcissa. She would do anything to keep that promise.

* * *

**+I.**

They learn to be free.

Andy does so before Bella, but they do finally gain their freedom. 

Their paths are widely different from each others’, their ideals far from similar. But they gain freedom. Freedom from the binding ties to their family, from suffocating restraints of the pureblood society, from the stifling expectations from the Wizarding World. Finally, they make their own decisions, live their own lives. Do their own job. Whether it is hurting someone or patching them up. Whether it is joining the Order or the Death Eaters.

That is not to say that the freedom comes without a price. It does. It asked Andy for her old life, Bella for her sanity. 

Bella is not ashamed to admit that she had cried the night that Andy left them for good. She only hopes Andy cries tears of blood when she finds out about what she had made her do. Everything that she had made her do. Because there is another promise that Bella had made a long time ago:

_ “Everything I do, I do for you two. Everything.”  _

Every twirl of her wand, every flick, every curse, every spell. She casts them all relentlessly on the filthy Mudbloods the Dark Lord brings to her, all in her sister’s name. Hoping against hope that Andy somehow finds out just what she thinks of her stunt. Hoping against hope that under the guilt of abandoning them, Andy dies.

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**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review if you liked the fic :)


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